Development Chief

The most awesome guy I have met in Ghana is the development chief of my village. He is retired now, but he use to work as an anesthesiologist in NYC for over 35 years. He still resides in the U.S., but he spends his winter and part of his spring months here in Ghana.

He grew up in the village I am working in and was one of the few people at that time to continue with his education after Senior Secondary School (High School). He ended up going to a nursing college and either during or after his time there he saw a newspaper advertising a test in which the person that scored the highest on it would get a full scholarship to Columbia University. He ended up getting the highest score and went to Columbia Medical School.

During his time there he needed spending money while going to school so he started playing professional football with the New York Cosmos while going to school. If you know anything about football (soccer to those of you back in the US), this was pre-MLS garbage and this team consisted of football legends like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer

He worked his ass off and all 3 of his kids got their PhDs. His daughter who use to be the Senior Legal Counsel for the UN in East Timor (where I was originally supposed to go for the Peace Corps), but now she is the Senior Legal Counsel for all of Sub-Saharan Africa and lives in the Sudan. She is pretty gangsta.

Other reasons why he is awesome:
- Drinks like a champion and he will be 70 years old this coming year.
- Has pimp houses here in Ghana.
- Has all the WWF (WWE now) DVDs ever made. He is a HUGE fan of wrestling and went to all the shows they had at MSG.
- Speaks English like an American and not a Ghanaian.
- Has 2 wives. Polygamy is legal here in Ghana.

Smalls

Here in Ghana they call all the young boys and girls “smalls.” A small boy or girl is required to do all the errands and things that you ask of them. You can call any “small” off the street and tell them to go buy you a water, a soda, a beer, etc. They are not allowed by culture to refuse anything that you ask of them. As for me, I use them for doing some things, but not for everything like some people do.

Within the first week I was here I got myself a whole crew of “smalls” that do various things for me. The younger ones go and run to the stores to buy me eggs, tomatoes, onions, bread, soda, water, etc. I have one older “small” that is named Clement. He is the one that does the hard manual labor for me. (On another note, while I was sitting here writing this I just sent a small to go get me some cookies to eat) The only thing that I consider hard manual labor so far is fetching water. I have electricity in my house, but I do not have running water. But with my small boy Clement I now have running water, in the form of “small” running 400 meters to the borehole and back with a 50 pound bucket of water on his head. In return I give him some fruit and bread whenever he wants and as of late I have been giving him chocolate that was sent to me from the states (Thanks Doug). He asks to do other various things such as clean my place, sweep the area in front of my house, wash my bike, and do my laundry (which you have to do by hand here). The only things I have let him do is fetch my water, clean my toilet, and I caught him washing my bike once, but I told him to stop because it was going to get dirty anyway and the mud on it gave it character (By saying this I confused him to the point that it might explode his head).

There are still many things that I don’t understand in this country, but the culture of the “smalls” is something that I have learned so far and I intend to keep taking full advantage of it while I am here. Hopefully I can teach one to make tacos, burritos, and burgers, but I have a long way to go especially since the last time I asked for eggs a “small” brought back hard boiled eggs.

**EDIT**
I found out something after I finished writing this entry. The other day I went home and found 12 little kids with buckets on their heads pouring water into my barrel. It turns out Clement just uses smaller “smalls” to fetch my water. I’m going to stop feeding him. And to think he was fetching 50 gallons of water twice a week by himself…